Suburban man's Chicago death ruled a homicide

The Cook County medical examiner's office said Monday it has classified the Chicago death of a 35-year-old Northwest suburban man a homicide, the result of multiple gunshot wounds.

Chicago police, meanwhile, are continuing their own investigation of the death of Patrick Cregan of Elk Grove Township, just outside Arlington Heights. They had no new developments to report Monday, however, and couldn't offer any insight into what might have led to the shooting.

Police found Cregan shot in the head, sitting in the driver's seat of his vehicle which had crashed into a chain-link fence near the intersection of California Avenue and Le Moyne Street around 4:15 a.m. Sunday.

Cregan's cousin, Nicole Cregan, said he was unmarried but had a son. She added that he lived with an uncle in Willoway Terrace trailer park. Original reports listed him as an Arlington Heights man as the trailer park has an Arlington Heights mailing address.

The explanation that's been circulating through the family for why he was on the West Side at that time of the morning is that Patrick Cregan was at work at his delivery job at the time of his death, she said.

Nicole Cregan added that Patrick was her closest cousin when they were growing up, but that they lost touch when she went away to college in Texas. She continued to live in Texas afterward, returning to Illinois a couple of years ago.

Nearby neighbors of Patrick Cregan who were at home Monday said they didn't know him. Management staff at Willoway Terrace said they hadn't been notified of his death.

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